Rob Coppes is since 2012 Full Professor of Radiotherapy, with focus on the side-effect of radiotherapy on normal tissues at the University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He obtained a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology, in 1993. Since 1998 he participates in the Groninger Proton Therapy Project with the KVI-Center for Advanced Radiation Technology on the effects of proton and carbon beams on normal tissues. He is programme leader of Cancer Research Center Groningen research programme; Damage and Repair in Cancer Development and Cancer Treatment. Next to this, his group investigates the potential of stem cell therapy to ameliorate radiation induced normal tissue side effects and the role of radiation-induced cellular senescence in the development and potential treatment of normal tissue side effects. For this his group uses in vivo models as well as adult stem cells derived tissue resembling organoids of mice, rat and human salivary gland, thyroid gland, brain and oesophagus, to study radiation-induced normal tissue effects. In 2015 he received the Bacq-and-Alexander Award of the European Radiation Research Society to an outstanding European researcher to recognize achievements in the field of radiation research. He is Editor Biology for Radiotherapy and Oncology, Associate Senior Editor for International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology & Physics and Editorial board member of Stem Cells, and Cancers. He is former president of the Dutch Society for Radiation Biology and the current chair of the ESTRO radiobiology committee. Since 2016 he is a teacher in the ESTRO Basic Clinical Radiobiology Course.